If you have been following my blog posts, you know that I have been searching for the parents of my 2nd great grandfather William Hawley. There have been ups and downs in the search. You can read more about my journey in the following blog posts; Re-thinking Research: The Parents of William Hawley, Finding the Parents of William Hawley... One Step Closer..., and Could William Hawley have been a Bound Boy?
One aspect that I have been researching for a couple of years now, but haven't talked much about is DNA research. Recently, this research has started to provide some real clues to the possible parents of William Hawley. Although I have not yet found hard proof through historical documentation, I believe that I can be confident enough in my findings to share my conclusion with you.
My first clue was a DNA match between myself and Kayla St. John. Kayla is also a DNA match to my paternal uncle Robert McKenzie. This was good evidence that the DNA shared between Kayla and me was on my paternal side. After reviewing the match between Kayla and me, I realized that we had the Hawley surname in common. Needless to say, I was very excited. I sent a message to Kayla, and after a few messages back and forth, we realized that although we couldn't make a direct connection regarding the Hawley Line, she did have a Hawley connection within a few generations of herself, which was closer than I had found thus far.
As we should always do in our genealogy research, I started with what I knew and worked from there. If Kayla is related by DNA to my paternal side and both have the Hawley surname in common, then maybe we are related to her Hawley line.
Kayla is the 3rd great-granddaughter of Daniel Hawley and Sarah Sally Huff. Here is a chart showing Kayla's relationship with Daniel and Sarah.
This piqued my interest and I shared my thoughts with Kayla. Over the next 6 - 9 months, Kayla had her mother Susan Wheeler, uncle Wayne Wheeler Jr., and grandmother Joyce Visger tested. This only added to the DNA evidence.
As you can see from the graphic below, there is definitely a connection between my paternal line and Kayla's Hawley line.
Could we be related to Daniel Hawley and Sarah Sally Huff? It was time to dig deeper. I started to look for other common DNA matches that may be connected to Daniel and Sarah.
Digging deeper into our DNA matches, specifically those that Kayla had in common with me, my aunt or uncle, I found Dawn Marie Robinson, as well as, her Father Kenneth and sister Krystal. Dawn is the 4th great-granddaughter of Daniel Hawley and Sarah Sally Huff. Here is a chart showing Dawn's relationship with Daniel and Sarah.
As you can see from the graphic below, there is also a connection between my paternal line and Dawn's Hawley line.
Now that I had a pretty good feeling that my family may be related to the Hawley family of Daniel, I started to search for more DNA matches. The key to this search was to find common surnames and shared matches among different users. This took some time and additional research. However, I think that the results speak for themselves.
I did find several DNA matches that seem to descend from Daniel and Sarah. I have specifically referenced a few of these DNA matches, however, I have found many more. The people that I mentioned in this post have given me permission to use their names and information. I have a complete list of matches and their connection with Daniel and Sarah in my research files. My goal with this post was to provide an example of the methods I used to find DNA matches.
In order to show the DNA connections that I have found to Daniel and Sarah, I have created a graphic below that presents a count of matches grouped by their connection to the children of Daniel and Sarah. I have found 25 confirmed descendants of Daniel Hawley and Sarah Sally Huff that match myself (Rebecca), Robert McKenzie or Betty McKenzie, or a combination of the three. These 25 matches are associated with 7 out of 13 of Daniel and Sarah's children.
I have also found other circumstantial proof regarding the possible connection of my 2nd great-grandfather William and Daniel and Sarah. Below are a few of these items:
- Daniel and Sarah would be of the correct age to be the parents of William Hawley who was born on August 31, 1836
- Daniel and Sarah were married around 1836
- Common Locations include
- Steuben County, New York
- Allegany County, New York
- Michigan
- Daniel and Sarah moved from New York to Michigan in 1859, William followed about 7 years later, in 1866, with his wife Mercy and their children
Just to be clear, all of the evidence listed in the above list is completely circumstantial and could easily be disputed. However, in combination with the DNA evidence that I have already provided, I truly believe that Daniel and Sarah are my 3rd great grandparents.
I have also recently come across some additional evidence that more strongly points towards this conclusion. However, I am still in the process of reviewing and analyzing it and therefore will have to share my findings in a future blog post.
As of today, I am confident enough to say that I believe that I can expand my Hawley Family line by one generation.
I have included an updated pedigree chart below. I will also be updating other pages on the website soon to represent this recent discovery.
I have included an updated pedigree chart below. I will also be updating other pages on the website soon to represent this recent discovery.
So... the question is.... has the mystery of William Hawley's parents been solved? I believe it has.
However, like all genealogical mysteries, my findings have only created more questions and brought more mysteries to light. I will continue to share my discoveries and I can promise there will be some interesting revelations to share in future blog posts. Thank you for following me on this journey thus far.
Hello Rebecca,
Thank you for reading my blog. I love your story as well! If you’ve triangulated 25 matches to Daniel and Sarah, then, to me, there is no question you are a direct descendant of these two people. I completely agree with your analysis on William and his connection to them.
I also noticed William named one of his daughters “Ellen” and another one “Sarah”–this, of course, implying that he named them after relatives which we know families often do.
Also, have your DNA matches uploaded to GEDMatch so you can analyze the number of generations to the MCRA (Just to give you further evidence that buck stops with Daniel and Sarah)?
I read your family group sheet on William as well!
Awesome research!
What I am finding is their is a William Hawley (b: abt 1776) married to a much younger spouse Mercy (1855 census, age 50) or Mary (1850 census, age 46) in Caneadea, Allegany, New York. With Daniel and Sara living next door to them in 1855 and a few pages down from them in 1850. The hint for what William (1776) is at before 1850 is in the birth location of Daniel’s children, some in PA and some in NY. So William (1776) might be in Ceres, McKean, PA in the 1840 census (single – widowed). The other key for Daniel’s location is the 1855 census were Dennis has the Steuben Co. scribbled in for birth location. So most likely if there is a child before Dennis he might have been born in Steuben County, as well. For DNA its going to be harder then you think since if all these HAWLEYs descend from Joseph Hawley they all with match marker to marker. Also you need a male example to be accurate if your trying to find the male line yet again is will just tell you which line not person to person. Your female DNA might seek out for Sarah Huff but female DNA does not posses any male chromosomes so will miss the Hawley side of things. If you can find a cousin or a direct living heir to your William to retrieve DNA sample from that might help with figuring that out. I descend from Sophrona Hawley and Alex Whitman, in case you desire to know that.
Hi Rebecca,
We’ve emailed once or twice before in 2017-18. I’m also related to Daniel David Hawley (1802-1877) and Sarah Sally Huff (1813-1911). They are also my maternal 3rd great-grandparents as well. I was born and raised in Michigan and I have Hawley’s in my ancestry as well as a Robert McKenzie who was my dad’s 1st cousin from Canada. My paternal grandmother is a McKenzie with family from Canada.
In your search for the father of William Hawley (1776-1859)
you may want to look at what I have found through the LDS website FamilySearch.org. Although the spelling is different which isn’t unusual as the recording official often spelled names the way they heard it or the way it sounded to them, William Hawley’s father is Ebeneezer Holly (1698-1775), no mother listed, Ebeneezer’s parents are John Holly Sr. (1670-1719) and Mary Crissey (1675-1719). Sarah Sally Huff’s parents are William C. Huff (1790-1860) and Elizabeth Huff (1795-1865) unknown maiden name. They had 2 children Jesse Huff (1806-?) and Sarah Sally Huff.
William and his wife Elizabeth (no last name) had 4 sons, Rev. William Chester Hawley (1790-1861), Daniel David Hawley (1802-1877), John Hawley and William Hawley no dates given.
I have several other generations in my genealogical family tree which goes way back past the 1600’s, so if there is any other information I can help you with the Hawley/Holly line or the Huff/Hough line just let me know.